Topical tutorials in Nanoscience & Advanced Materials

Nanoscience is the study of small scale matter, the minuscule building blocks of the material and biological worlds. Nanotechnologists are concerned with the behaviour of materials at these small dimensions and how they can be manipulated to do useful things. Thus the "science" of creating advanced materials whether nano-sized or not.

Through the two freshman years a range of about a dozen tutorials each year will educated students in the broader themes of nanotechnology. The purpose of these topical tutorials, listed here, is to examine topics in nanoscience and allow you to make connections between the future of nanoscience, nanotechnology and advanced materials and the topics that you study in Physics and in Chemistry in your freshman years. Thus educated you will make the most of your opportunities to be trained in nanoscience techniques in the Junior Sophister year and to take an active role in determining the nature and direction of your research project in your final year.

The "big" ideas or themes within nanoscience are as follows:

• Size matters
• Scaling laws
• Surface-to-volume ratio
• Surface dominated behaviour
• "Bottom-up" vs "Top-down"
• Self assembly
• Quantum mechanics
• Size-dependent properties
• Thermodynamics - change of states
• Tools, instruments & characterisation
• Models and simulations
• Societal impact

The sum total of the tutorials over the course of two years will seek to address these topics while making specific use of topics of interest in the news or of concern to researchers within the TCD Schools of Chemistry and Physics and of the CRANN research institute.

List of topical tutorials in Nanoscience and Advanced Materials 2014-2015

Students should research the topics in advance given the reference material and further keywords.

• Introduction to Nanoscience and Advanced Materials - Themes of nanoscience.
• #1 Size matters - why nanoscale materials are different (part 1 - nanocrystals)
  Screencast of talk - large mp4 version or small mp4 version.
  Reference material on why size matters at the nanoscale.
• #2 Size matters - why catalysis with nanoscale materials is different (part 2 - catalysis)
  Reference material on why size matters at the nanoscale.

List of topical tutorials in Nanoscience and Advanced Materials 2013-2014

• Introduction to Nanoscience and Advanced Materials - Themes of nanoscience.
  Screencast of talk - large mp4 version or small mp4 version.
• #1 The ultimate limits of lithography - the state of the art of semiconductor technology and Moores law
  Reference material on the ultimate limits of lithography - a historical view - what is the state of the art now ?
  Screencast of talk - large mp4 version or small mp4 version.
• #2 Rusty Electrodes: New Materials for Electrochemical Water Splitting - by Prof. Mike Lyons
  Reference material on "rusty" electrodes and water splitting - a research article in Irish Chemical News.
• #3 Carbon nanotubes, graphene and electronics with Prof. J. Coleman, School of Physics
  Reference material on electronics with carbon nanotubes.
• #4 Graphene nanoribbons - top down versus bottom up approaches
  Reference material on the creation of graphene nanoribbons - top-down and bottom-up methods.
  Screencast of talk - large mp4 version or small mp4 version.
• #5 Radical Nanotechnology - Brownian ratchets, nature and radical nanotechnology
  Reference material on the future of nanotechnology.
  Screencast of talk - large mp4 version or small mp4 version.
• #6 Light, photonics and nanoscience - Prof. John Donegan, Deputy Director of CRANN and School of Physics.
• #7 One application, one material and one theory - Prof. Stefano Sanvito, Director of CRANN and School of Physics.
• #8 The quantum mechanics of a particle in a box investigated by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy - Prof. Cormac McGuinness, School of Physics.
  Reference material on playgrounds for physics with placed atoms: - particles in a box on silicon and quantum mirages.
  Screencast of talk - large mp4 version or small mp4 version.

List of topical tutorials in Nanoscience and Advanced Materials 2012-2013

• Introduction to Nanoscience and Advanced Materials - Themes of nanoscience.
• #1 Size matters - why nanoscale materials are different (part 1 - nanocrystals)
  Reference material on why size matters at the nanoscale.
• #2 Memristors, computing and materials with Prof. John Boland, School of Chemistry.
  Reference material on memristors and technologies for future microchips. Article published by Boland group on adaptive nanowire networks.
• #3 Size matters - part 2 - why catalysis can depend upon shapes.
  Reference material on size matters at the nanoscale and the catalytic activity of gold nanoparticles.
• #4 Helium ion microscopy - observing at the nanoscale with Prof. Hongzhou Zhang, School of Physics.
  A history of helium ion microscopy and the imaging of a helium ion microscope.
• #5 Introduction to Scanning Probe Microscopy - surfaces at the nanoscale with Prof. Martin Hegner, School of Physics.
  An excerpt on scanning probe microscopies from the Encyclopaedia of Nanotechnology. The first papers on STM tunneling through a gap, STM imaging of a surface and the AFM.
• #6 Dispersing nanomaterials - All shook up with Prof. Shane Bergin, School of Physics.
  Please read both Nanomaterials: It's a Small, Small World by Kathleen Hickman, 2002 and follow the weblinks to learn more on particular topics, and also see "20 things to do with Graphene" beginning on page 11 of the June 2012 Physics World Focus on Nanotechnology.
  Screencast of Prof. Bergins talk - large mp4 version or small mp4 version.
• #7 Self assembly at all scales with Prof. Rachel Evans, School of Chemistry.
  Please read the reference material on self-assembly at all scales.
• #8 Building nanocar molecules - one atom at a time - an update from 2013
  Reference material on molecular devices and machines.
• #9 Synthetic graphene - a physical analogue of a material.
  Please read the reference material on graphene and the Nature commentary.
  Screencast of Prof. McGuinness's talk - large mp4 version or small mp4 version.

List of topical tutorials in Nanoscience and Advanced Materials 2011-2012

• Introduction to Nanoscience and Advanced Materials - Themes of nanoscience
• #1 Building nanocar molecules - one atom at a time
  Reference material on molecular devices and machines.
• #2 The future of nanotechnology - Brownian ratchets, nature and radical nanotechnology
  Reference material on the future of nanotechnology.
• #3 The ultimate limits of lithography - the state of the art of semiconductor technology and Moores law
  Reference material on the ultimate limits of lithography - a historical view - what is the state of the art now ?
• #4 Advanced microscopy for nanofabrication - how to create nanostructures with Dr. Colm Faulkner, Advanced Microscopy Laboratory, CRANN
  Reference material on focussed ion beams and nanofabrication.
• #5 Carbon nanotubes, graphene and electronics with Prof. J. Coleman, School of Physics
  Reference material on electronics with carbon nanotubes.
• #6 Nanooptics, nanolasers, nanoantennas
  Reference material on paper on nanolasers and reference material on paper on nanoantennas.
• #7 Ultra-high resolution electron microscopy: imaging materials at the pico-scale with Prof. V. Nicolosi, School of Physics and School of Chemistry
  Reference material on advances in imaging at the atomic resolution scale.
• #8 "Bottom up" vs "Top down" approaches with Prof. Y. Gu'nko, School of Chemistry
  Reference material on advances in top down and bottom up surface nanofabrication.
• #9 Scanning Tunneling Microscopy: probing a particle in a box
  Reference material on playgrounds for physics with placed atoms: - particles in a box on silicon and quantum mirages.